Episode 47: Markus Zusak’s “Three Wild Dogs and the Truth” + revisiting Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”

Markus Zusak uses words like “challenging” and “ complex” to describe his three dogs, Reuben, Archie and Frosty. In this interview Zusak recounts the joy of remembering his hounds in all their unvarnished glory for this, his first memoir. Also, the challenge of recording his own audio books, the ol…

Episode 46: Sean Williams; guru of speculative fiction and fantasy + Kylie Cardell dissects the “gloriously unhinged” work of Miranda July and Rachel Yoder

Sean Williams, author of 5 million words, is famous for his hugely successful forays into the worlds of Star Wars, Dr Who, the Marvel Universe, but did you know he also writes ghost stories for young readers? ”Honour Among Ghosts” and “Her Perilous Mansion” are exciting, mysterious, witty and cleve…

Episode 45: The Romance Edition

As Mills and Boon Australia celebrates 50 years of taking readers on journeys of love and lust, Annie speaks with Barbara Hannay about her latest novel, "The Wife's Secret", and Michaela discusses medical romance with Amy Andrews, author of "The Outback Doctor's Surprise Bride".  Guests : Barba…

Episode 44: Amy Stewart’s tales of arboreal obsession in “The Tree Collectors” + Don Binney, New Zealand’s favourite bird artist remembered in “Flight Path”

 Amy Stewart paints a powerful portrait of the human passion for plants in “The Tree Collectors” with fifty different tales of people who, for one fascinating reason or another, devote their life to trees. The book is illustrated with Amy’s vibrant watercolours of the trees and their idiosyncratic …

Episode 43: “The End And Everything Before It” by Finegan Kruckemeyer + “Don’t Tell Alfred” by Nancy Mitford

A story that is difficult to pin down to a narrative, playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer’s debut novel explores arrivals and departures, time and space, through the experiences of a curious cast of characters.  + Annie Warburton explores why we read the works of old writers, dissecting the work of Na…

Episode 42: “This Devastating Fever” by Sophie Cunningham + The Jewish Men’s Book Club

Cath carries this episode with two great chats; the first with author Sophie Cunningham and the other with self-professed “book snob”, Ron Hoenig. = Ostensibly a novel about Alice, a woman who’s spent the last 20 years writing the biography of Virginia Woolf’s husband, Leonard, “This Devastating …

Episode 41: “The Work” by Bri Lee + “The Radio Hour” by Victoria Purman

Peeling back the veneer of the New York art scene, Bri Lee takes readers into the background world that fuels the industry. ‘The Work’ follows the lives of two protagonists from vastly different backgrounds: gallery owner, Lally, and antiquities dealer, Patrick, as they each follow a path to succes…

Episode 40: “The Accident” by Fiona Lowe + “Suddenly Single at Sixty” by Jo Peck

When a car veers off the road with devastating consequences, the small wheatbelt town of Garringarup is left reeling, but no one's worlds are more shattered than those of Hannah and Freya, the partners of the passengers. On a day when wedding bells should have been ringing, their lives are torn apa…

Episode 39: Tension builds in Miranda Darling’s "Thunderhead" + Bel Schenk portrays teen angst in "The Most Famous Boy in Town"

The outwardly comfortable life of mother and wife, Winona Dalloway, has dark currents running beneath. "Thunderhead" is her interior monologue as she navigates the everyday acts of collecting the children from school, shopping and preparing for a dinner party when in fact she is a woman in peril. A…

Minsode 38.5: Thrilling Australian crime with debut novelist Louise Milligan

In a move away from investigative journalism and her previous deep diving non-fiction titles, Louise Milligan delves into crime fiction with debut novel, Pheasants Nest. It tells the story of Kate Delaney, a journalist who finds herself bound and gagged and being driven somewhere by a strange man. …